Why is it not possible to build a PC that delivers the same performance as a PS5 at the same cost? What are we missing?
In: Technology
Everyone talks about subsidies and optimization, but there is also that a PS5 is more like a laptop where everything is soldered on a single board. Connectors are kind of expensive on both sides of the connection. So, PS5 has not RAM Connectors, no cpu socket, no pcie connectors. Why can’t we get a laptop with the same specs and price? They still have many of the connectors, so cost more for being smaller, and add in the screen. And, any single gaming laptop doesn’t have the same economies of scale for the gaming laptops as a PS5.
Finally, there is the APU. A typical gaming PC has separate CPU and GPU, and separate CPU and GPU RAM plus the associated PCIE on the motherboard and CPU which add quite a bit to the cost. A PS5 has an APU with 16GB GDDR6 RAM at 14gbps gives 448gb/s, same as a 3070. A PS5 uses that as its shared memory as compared to a PC APU on say DDR5 7000 at 128 bit, which is theoretically 1/4 what the PS5 has and DDR4 is typically about half that again.
The RAM bandwidth puts a limit on how fast a PC APU can be, so that path to lowering price and getting similar performance is cut off on the PC.
It IS possible, in general consoles start out costing a bit less than an equivalent PC but after a few years the price point comes down on PC components and you can build a gaming PC that outperforms a console for less than the cost of a console.
We’re about 4 years past the PS5 initial release and you can put together a PC that performs around the same as the 2020 PS5 for a bit less than the cost of a PS5.
Of course, if you calculate the costs over a few years PC wins every time. You have to pay a monthly subscription to actually get the benfit of a PS5, or an Xbox, so call that $80/year. If you bought a PS5 in 2020 you’d have paid $320 in PS+ subscriptions by now, add that to the cost of a PS5. That $500 PS5 is now a $820 PS5. And it’ll be a $900 PS5 in 2025.
But right this second you can get a PC that’s more or less on spec with a PS5 for maybe $100 or so more than the cost of a new PS5 even without factoring in the long term price of a PS5.
For example, here’s a pretty decent setup that’s similar in spec: [https://pcpartpicker.com/guide/xwv6Mp/entry-level-intel-gaming-build](https://pcpartpicker.com/guide/xwv6Mp/entry-level-intel-gaming-build)
Main reasons
1) Cheaper to build products like a PS5 in massive quantities than individual PC components and assemble a PC.
2) Console manufactures sell at a loss and make their money on ads, subscriptions, and profits from the digital store.
3) Performance is not exclusive to the power of the physical components in a PC or PS5. Software optimization also plays an important role. Console developers only have a few hardware configurations to program for which helps them squeeze extra performance in. Compared to a PC game which needs to run on lots of system configurations.
TL:DR Economy of a scale, undercutting the price, and consistent hardware configurations helps a lot.
Because sony sells ps5s at a loss and makes money on every game sold.
Nvidia doesnt make money when you buy games, just their card.
Sony sells the PS5 at a loss. Because once you have a PS5, you are forced to buy PS5 games and accessories, all of which Sony makes money on.
Nvidia doesn’t sell you games, so their graphics cards need to be profitable.
Also, PC games are less optimised. Every PS5 is the same, so they can do more on weaker hardware.
Sony gets a cut on every game you buy, so they sell the PS5 at a loss. It’s how every console has operated, they make their profits on game sales. There’s also subscription revenue they can count on now.
1. economies of scale – the more you make of something, the less it costs per unit.
2. integration – it’s more efficient to make something that’s integrated than to make something that’s modular.
3. focused features – the hardware is heavily tuned towards the purpose of gaming. the cpu and gpu are balanced, they don’t have unused features, the rest of the board can omit unused features too.
4. profit margins – Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo are willing to sell at low margins for the sake of selling first party games.
5. optimization – devs also tune the game for the console’s hardware.
Everyone here is focusing on subsidizing but the thing they’re leaving out is hardware differences.
The PS5 has a lot of stuff that isn’t common (though can be done) on a PC even though it shares a similar architecture.
The CPU and GPU can share the same memory. And it uses very fast GDDR6 RAM. This means it isn’t spending as much time copying resources between the two.
It also has direct storage access and dedicated decompression parts that can further speed up data access.
You get much lower level access via its APIs as well that can target specifically the hardware it has.
Since there’s only one hardware specification, you can also precompute many things like shaders.
It also is prioritizing resources to your game with a much lighter OS.
A comparable PC in pure horse power wouldn’t be able to match the PS5 for sheer throughput of data flowing. And that’s the real reason it can punch so much higher above its weight even after you remove the subsidies.
PCs have to run windows. It’s a lot clunkier than console UIs. So even if you made it as powerful the games wouldn’t run as good. So the PC actually has to be more powerful. It takes time for video card prices to come down to that level.
AI upscaling is making this more feasible. You can have the game set at a lower resolution than your monitor, and the game will upscale it to what it should be, with no tax on performance.
The ps5 pro will have this technology built in.
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